Be Glassy-Eyed During Museum Month

Local museums are palpitating with spring fever while art pollinates the Big Orange. The Bass, MoCA, MAM, the Lowe, and others are joining forces for a Museum Month celebration thats nothing to sneeze at. During the month of May, membership to any of the nine participating institutions will serve as a free pass to any of the other museums.

This Friday at 3 p.m. at the Lowe, local philanthropists Myrna and Sheldon Palley will host a private tour of their glittering glass collection, amassed over 30 years and numbering hundreds of pieces permanently on display at the museum. The Palley Collection, valued at more than $3.5 million, boasts gems by Harvey Littleton, Richard Jolley, Michael Glancy, Clifford Rainey, Dante Marioni, Hank Murda Adams, and Dale Chihuly, among others. The new light-filled 3,500-square-foot Myrna and Sheldon Palley Pavilion, designed by Coral Gables-based architect Ronald Mateu, houses works that span the glass movement from the 70s to the present, and marks the first expansion to the Lowe in years.